Flour Bluff Hornets infest Cottonpickers

The Robstown Cottonpickers were shut out 52-0 at Flour Bluff Friday night, dropping Robstown's record to 1-3 in district play, 2-7 overall.

Robstown received the opening kickoff but couldn't move the ball very far on the opening drive as they were forced to quickly punt.

The Hornets, on the other hand, took only three plays to take an early 7-0 lead.

"We shut down their confidence early with the touchdown in the first few plays and it was just downhill from there," said Flour Bluff head coach Darrel Andrus.

The Cottonpickers couldn't seem to put together any kind of drive as they failed to move the ball on their second possession and punted again.

Hornet running back Michael Gowens, who tormented the Pickers, scored on a 40-yard run down the right sideline with 4:55 left in the first quarter, giving the Hornets a 14-0 lead.

Robstown was dominated on both sides of the ball. The Pickers failed to gain a single yard on their third drive of the night and, in fact, went two negative yards before punting the ball away again.

The Hornets upped their lead to 20 on their first play of the drive as James LaNoue caught a pass in the end zone. It would have been worse if Picker Chris Buentello hadn't blocked the extra point.

The Cottonpickers even tried going for it on fourth-and-four, but they failed to get the first down and turned the ball over to the Hornets at Flour Bluff's 40-yard line as the first quarter came to an end.

Hornet Chris McCormick came up with a big 29-yard run down to the 2, where Nico Gomez finished up the drive for a touchdown up the middle.

The Cottonpickers failed again to advance a yard and punted down the field to their own 41.

Three plays later, Flour Bluff's Justin Brandt took the ball down the right side of the field 30 yards for a touchdown, while breaking eight tackles as the Cottonpickers could not take him down.

On the first play of the second half, McCormick ran for 59 yards and a touchdown to make the score 45-0.

Robstown started to drive, utilizing their running game. But just as they started to get something going, the Pickers fumbled and lost the ball at the Hornet 31-yardline.

It was McCormick again on a 69-yard touchdown run on the first play of Flour Bluff's drive to make the score to 52-0.

The Cottonpickers turned the ball over two more times before the game came to a close as the Hornet ran time off the clock.

"Flour Bluff is a good football team. They have a lot of talent, but we didn't come to play tonight," said Robstown head coach Doug Wood. "I know we can play but we don't show up prepared to go out and play some football, and you get embarrassed like we did."

The Cottonpickers take on the Alice Coyotes at home Friday in their last game of the season.